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Cover: ‘blue ring riverways’
By JanK

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“Bolt: Six Ways” was originally published in Voices from the Attic.

Fireplace Dolls

fireplace dolls
alert in the woodhole
watching our family
from the hearth in reverse
one wraps her leg
the other stand-jamming
what will they think
when they see we're alive?

Learning to Read

This is how you teach your child
to spell your lover’s name
This is how you wrap your hand
around a clump of snow
This is how you polish up your home:
in silver paint and glass
This is how you pack your things to go
This is how you move from house to house
This is how you coax the buds from snow
This is how you huddle close,
in blasts of winter night

Escape

Animal bodies, interlocking shapes:
iridescent fish scale,
rainbow to the third power
muscle twist of snake’s smooth diamonds
porcupine: ombre quill on quill, endless crossings
hound’s fur rubbed backwards,
plush carpet, disappearing skin
ear of rabbit: white fuzz, pink flesh, blue vein
kangaroo and joey in the pocket—
he made his long crawl long ago
seated mama bear, juggling new cubs

And in my arms,
a squirmy boy body full of bones,
hair smelling of sunshine,
trying to escape my grasp
and move himself
closer to the light

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two crows fly close to my head
their wings a rustle-flap of wedding skirts
harmony in their staggered calls

sun sets in your thumbnail
as you grip the wheel
is this my before
or the beginning of some other after?

Bolt: Six Ways

A stubby arrow, the kind no one shoots anymore
Threaded fastener, male, hexagon head
Flash in the sky or boom shaking the pines
Metal bar in the doorjamb keeping everything out
Down the food to sugar up the blood, and now
Run away wildly, no thought for what’s behind

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Laura Sloan Patterson © 2023